Posted on 05/01/2018 3:43:24 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
Health Care Denial: Bernie Sanders and many of his fellow Democrats pushing single payer endlessly claim that health care is a "basic human right." What they never mention is that gaining that one means sacrificing many other rights. Just ask the parents of Alfie Evans.
Alfie died this week in a British hospital after a series of events that, if they'd happened here, would be a serious breakdown in our nation's health care system and of parental rights.
Back in December 2016, British doctors diagnosed Alfie Evans as having a degenerative neurological condition that they couldn't identify. As Alfie's conditioned worsened, officials at the National Health Service decided that Alfie's condition had deteriorated to the point where he was in a "semi-vegetative state" and would never recover.
The doctors at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital decreed that the best course of action was to pull the plug and let Alfie die.
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Good article. It would be interesting if there were any cases of American children who had the same medical problems as Charlie Gard or Alfie Evans, and a comparison between the British process and the American process for dealing with it could be laid out in an article like this.
Single payer, with ‘affordability’ built in...gives you the cheapest health care possible. It’s not anything you’d want to brag about.
I reminded of a story out of the UK about twenty years ago. A Brit guy (bit overweight, maybe in the 250-270 lb pound range) had knee issues. His local medical group said yeah...you definitely need a knee replacement surgery. But they said....you have to lose roughly 60 pounds for us to approve the surgery.
The guy looked at them....in serious pain. There’s no way to build an exercise program or effect weight loss....with the knees in this condition. Their comeback was...we will give you pain-killers to help in this episode.
The guy goes back to a local pub to drink off this impossible solution. The pub owner, from India...speaks up about his cousin who is a doctor in India, and they do surgery like this for a much cheaper price. Communications go back and forth, and there’s this price suggested for the knee replacements, two weeks in some Indian resort hotel for recovery, full-up dinners, etc....all for around equivalent of 5,000 dollars. The guy pulls out some savings...gets some help from relatives, and pays for this out of his own pocket.
I think most Brits now operate this way.
I gather it is only the poor who die? Sounds like a great eugenics application.
I know a lady from Germany who lives here in the US. Her 85 year old mother was visiting from Germany. This is an otherwise healthy woman who was very active. Now the mom had some chest pain in Germany and they gave her nitroglycerin and told her that was all they could do for her because of her age. While in America mom starts having chest pain and is taken to a local ER where within 24 hours she has triple bypass done.
Guess what? My friend’s mom lived 10 more years with a high quality of life.
This is the issue with socialist medicine.
Yeah, and if a prole mum dies getting an abortion (this happens with shocking regularity) that’s two-for-one.
2 words: Bed blockers.
Those 2 words tell you everything you every need to know about the bloody NHS.
Yes they do. But way too many Americans are OK with it because they don’t think it will happen to them and they’d rather have a nanny state take care of them and make decisions for them than keep their own money and make their own choices for their families.
I would offer this assessment....having lived in Germany for a fairly long period.
Some hospitals are noted to have a highly significant infection rate (I know it’s a stupid thing to admit in the modern era). I have three noted hospitals within a 30-min drive of my house, and one is fairly well known now for getting infections, which lead onto serious life-and-death situations.
So you have the tendency of both patients and doctors...to assess the necessity of operations, and if it’s not better to avoid being in a hospital (as silly as it sounds).
Me? I’ve actually told the wife if I’m ever in an accident and the ambulance comes...she must ensure they don’t carry me to the particular hospital with the higher rate of infection.
And we thought we defeated the Nazi’s in WWII !!!!!!
You see we have had several cases like this in the US.
Boston's Children is notorious for it.
The main problem is that once you check your child into a hospital and allow them to give him care you can only remove them with the hospital's consent.
It was meant so hospitals could act in cases of abuse. Like all good intentioned ideas it is now out of hand and any differences you have with the hospital over care is now considered "abuse" and they will take you to court.
While the single payer does not make it any easier the real problem is the assumption that the medical staff is pure and above reproach and "only doing what is BEST for the child".
In truth everyone has their own personal motive and sometimes they can be holding your child to prove a pet theory.
When the opinion of medical people are automatically given more weight then the wishes of the parent trouble is bound to follow.
Babykillers! That’s what NHS is now.
My personal observation of countries that have government-run health systems is that people are forced to go public with their most intimate and embarrassing health problems in order to try and pressure some bureaucrat into approving their treatment.
Watch the foreign press and you will see this time and time again.
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